Friday, October 31, 2014

Whew, what an early morning today! My coworker Reggie and I scheduled a SuperShuttle to pick us up at the hotel at 5:25 AM so that we could make our 8:50 AM flight out of Santa Ana. I woke up around 4:45 AM to take a quick shower and wake up.

The flights to Dallas and Washington DC were uneventful. Dad picked me up at the airport. Mom reported that RJ was a good guest. Well, he caused some mischief like poking holes in some of her plants and also getting into any closet or cabinet that was opened. Fortunately no biting occurred so I'm sure Mom wouldn't mind to have him back again when I go on travel.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

I left for Anaheim on Sunday and I'm finally going home tomorrow. This was my first time coming to the Newborn Screening Symposium, so a lot of the topics were a little over my head because they were more technical. The best session was one where the parents and patients that were saved/affected by newborn screening shared their stories. I think it was a good way to reinforce to the meeting attendees that what they do matters and saves lives. My purpose in going to the meeting was to present a poster with my boss.

On Wednesday night, one of the vendors and corporate partners rented out a club and held a Halloween party. I was very impressed that many of the meeting attendees came prepared with costumes. The hosts dressed up as superheros: The Flash, the Hulk, Catwoman, Robin, Green Lantern, etc. I brought Julie's shark costume for this event.

The meeting ended at noon today and by 12:15 PM, my boss and I were on the hotel shuttle to Disneyland. Yay, finally! We decided to do Space Mountain first because the 2 other coworkers that were coming later were busy packing up after the meeting and didn't seem interested in Space Mountain anyway. We were about 20 people away from the ride and then an announcement came on to say that it was temporarily closed. We waited it out and about 15 minutes later, it was back on. Wow, that was an intense ride. You couldn't even see me in the post-ride photo because I was crouched behind the guy in front of me, holding onto the bar for dear life. After we met up with our coworkers, we did several more rides until the park closed: Indiana Jones (this was my favorite ride of the day), Winnie the Pooh (second favorite ride), The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (third favorite ride), Star Tours, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and Pirates of the Carribean. We ended with Peter Pan, which was very similar to the ride at Disney World.

After Peter Pan, Ben and I went shopping and my boss and Ben's boss went to get one more ride in (Thunder Mountain). I got a Disneyland magnet and 2 Stitch pins. We headed out around 8:30 and then went to Red Robin for dinner. Whew, what a busy day! Glad to be going home tomorrow :)

Saturday, October 25, 2014

I was so thankful that Mom and Dad agreed to babysit RJ at their house while I'm gone in CA this next week. During my previous business trips, Mom and Dad would come check on RJ every other day since the automatic feeder would take care of him. However, given my last trip to Boston and coming home to a very sick cat, I decided that I wasn't going to take any chances. Plus, seeing as he can only eat prescription cat food now, I don't want my parents to have to check on him twice a day to feed him. Who wants to eat wet cat food that's been sitting out all day. I'd feel better knowing that someone was keeping an eye on him.

Anyway, so yesterday after work, I packed him up with his carrier and his cat food and brought him over to the house. Mom set up a litter box in the main floor bathroom. He was very curious and wanted to check out every nook and cranny in the place.

I was in the sunroom this afternoon and saw that Harry was visiting for lunch. I had to take a picture of the two of them together: Mom's temporary full-time cat and her part-time cat.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A coworker was gathering some clothing donations and in my closet digging, I found this Old Navy fleece that I no longer wanted. Up to Ebay it went! Sold for $5.50. I also let go of a few work-appropriate tops, which leaves some room for replacements :D

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

My cousin Emily is currently in Taiwan visiting her family. She must have been digging through some old photos because she texted a few to me earlier tonight, some of them seen below. It's funny to see how dark and full my dad's hair was back then. :)

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Because I've been slacking on the spin classes last week, I decided to do 2 spin classes this morning. Then I went to my parents' house to get my share of the curry rice that Mom made last night and some apples that they picked.

When I went grocery shopping yesterday, I saw this pumpkin pie one and decided to try it out. Yum, so delicious! I'll be picking up more tomorrow. :)

Saturday, October 18, 2014

I went to Attic in the Street today (I found some good stuff at this event in 2012) and only found one thing, but it was better than a steal. It's a black fleece from LLBean and I got it for $2! These things brand new cost about $50. All it needs it a run through the laundry and it'd be good to go. Even then, it's not dirty at all, but I guess you never know where it's been prior to the yard sale.

I saw my coworker at this yard sale and she had a bunch of stuff in her hands. I'm curious to see what she got when we "debrief" on Monday. :D

Friday, October 17, 2014

I stopped by the vet's office to get a refill on his prescription cat food. (I mean, really? Is prescription cat food necessary? Sigh, I guess whatever it takes to prevent crystals from forming again...).

The receptionist took one look at me and I could sense concern. "Oh, he's fine! Don't worry! I'm just here to get some more of his cat food!" I said. "Oh, whew! I was a little worried there!!"

One of the vet technicians was trying to get a dog into the exam room with some resistance. "How's RJ?" Looks like RJ made a lasting impression on the folks there. :)

After that, I went to CVS armed with $15 Extra Care Bucks (I only used $10 of them). I came out with 2 Revlon lip liners to try (one in wine and one in red) and 3 things of candy (Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids for Julie and a thing of Milk Duds for myself).

Then I went to my parents' house to catch up with my family. My aunt and uncle also stopped by to catch up too. Mom and Dad recapped on their recent vacation to Taiwan/Japan (well, this was part 1 of their vacation recap because their trip was a month long and it was getting late!).

Thursday, October 16, 2014

I decided to telework today because I woke up with some cold symptoms. As the day went on, I had a craving for some chocolate and cookies. I didn't want to go to the store for them, so I decided to bake a batch of cookies instead. Yeah, it took some work, but I didn't have to leave the house and it was probably cheaper in the long run.

There wasn't a lot of good TV on tonight, but then I remembered that I hadn't caught up on NCIS:LA yet since the beginning of the season...but now I'm all caught up ;)

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

It was a busy evening today! Arrow, Law and Order: SVU and then making the 8 remaining cards in the office card order that came in yesterday. I'm glad that that HR girl liked the card so I wouldn't have to make additional samples. :)

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I got an email from Human Resources today, asking for 9 birthday cards. I used this as an opportunity to use a set of Sizzix Triplits dies that I bought back in August. One of the other dies in the set that I used didn't cut all the way through (plus, it's a little more intricate), so I'll have to figure that out, but at least this flag worked.

RJ has been battling a cold since last Wednesday, but fortunately, I think today is the tail end of it. I didn't hear him sniffling and sneezing and battling congestion just in general. Lots of mouth breathing = cat food breath. Yuck.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Trip to another Target to return the expired ice cream that I bought yesterday and some mineral foundation that I bought earlier today that was total crap. Walked around the mall for some extra steps,

Trip to the grocery store to return some vodka sauce that was $1 more expensive than the stuff that I bought at the Target earlier this morning.

Home for a NAP!

Made pasta with mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, sausage and vodka sauce. Guess what I'm going to be eating the next few days...

Card: I started this card a few weeks ago, but then wasn't feeling very inspired, so I set it aside. I picked it back up today and made it into a birthday card. Well, I guess more like a celebratory card. Whatever occasion that cake is present (which could be any day, in my book!).

Saturday, October 11, 2014

I went to the Silver Diner for breakfast this morning with some friends from grad school, Jessie and Jenny. I haven't seen them for a couple of months so we were there for about 2.5 hours to catch up. Afterwards I went to my parents' house to catch up with them. Then I went to a Redbox to pick up a movie and then to Target to pick up some ice cream (one thing of Cinnamon Bun and one thing of Pumpkin Patch). When I got home, I realized that the Cinnamon Bun one had expired almost a month ago! Yuck. Not so good for food safety. I'll be seeing if I can get my money back. The Pumpkin Patch ice cream was quite tasty.

Julie came over to watch Transformers: Age of Extinction. Wow, am I glad that I didn't spend $10 to see that at the theater. The only thing that I liked about the movie was the special effects, especially the Dinobots, but even then, they were only present during the last 30 minutes of the movie. The acting and plot was kinda meh. The first and third Transformers are still my favorites.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

There was lots of food at the office today...hooray for meeting season. I ate a small bowl of cereal at home and then I had meeting breakfast leftovers (Eggspectations) and then a coworker brought in leftover food from her parents' house. I had a slice of the chocolate chip pound cake for third breakfast. For lunch, the meeting got Chipotle burrito bar and Chipotle always seems to bring a ton more food than your ordered. I planned accordingly and brought in a container to take some home for dinner.

I took a break during the day to go to CVS because I had a whole bunch of coupons in hand. 2 boxes of hair dye, a concealer, and a mascara came out to $34.76. I had a $1 off Maybelline mascara, $5 Extra Care beauty bucks, $2 off hair dye, and $4 off a $20 purchase, so the end total was $24.31 with tax included. Because of the hair dye and Maybelline deals going on, I got $10 Extra Care Bucks back. :D

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

On my day off yesterday, I did my nails with my newish Cheeky Plates. This one is the Happy Nails plate and I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Man-go Team and the Konad black nail polish. I love the way these turned out because it's a cool spin on Halloween.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

When I woke up this morning, I decided to take the day off. There wasn't anything that I need to do for work at the office and I really wanted to get some sleep (because RJ being sick the last week has really exhausted me) and I wanted to visit my parents since they got back from vacation yesterday. I think their luggage was 10% dirty laundry and the rest was food. This was just the stuff that I took for myself, but I know there's more where that came from! :)

Monday, October 6, 2014

The vet said that he had to put a catheter in on Sunday and I was sorta freaking out about that because I was worried that he was regressing. I asked my boss if I could telework today so that I could go visit him at the animal hospital after work and then go to the office for a reception. Much to my surprise, the vet called me to say that "so far, so good." What?! That's great! Apparently, the catheter was just a temporary thing, not an overnight thing. "If nothing changes today, he can go home tonight." YAY!

It was hard to get through a full day of work and a work reception when I knew I could be springing him out of the hospital, but I managed. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing at the reception except for eating and being nice to people, so that's what I did. I'm not much of a small-talker so social situations like that make me a tad nervous. The new President was congratulated for completing his doctorate recently and he got a big cake. I stepped in and helped him cut and serve it. I stayed for about 45 minutes and then asked my boss if I could leave to go get RJ.

When I got to the animal hospital, the receptionist that was working during that shift was like "You're late." Hah, I guess it goes to show how often I was going there the past week (basically once a week, since last Tuesday). I told her RJ could go home. "Oh, great! That's fantastic!" She went over the medications and I paid my bill (roughly $2500, ouch!) and then the vet technician got RJ. He whined all the way home, which was a welcomed sound because the last time he was in the carrier, he was a very very sick kitty.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

I went to visit RJ first thing in the morning. The vet took out his catheter (again) and now we wait to see if he can pee on his own. Fingers crossed. Since I did some cleaning and grocery shopping yesterday, I had some time to play with makeup and because I wasn't going anywhere this afternoon, it could be as dramatic as I wanted it to be. Bam, blue eye shadow and a dark red lip. :)

Earlier this evening, I met up with Robyn and Meg for dinner at Piola (hello, sangria Saturday). Meg had fallen while running earlier today so afterwards, we went to CVS to get some first aid stuff for her knee and then head back to her apartment to continue catching up.

Friday, October 3, 2014

RJ is still at the vet and I feel a little out of control. All I can do is just sit and wait and wait some more for the vet to continue to give him the proper treatment. Since I was working from home today, I took breaks to scrub down my bathroom and kitchen and also bake some cupcakes. I found this box of mix at Target a few weeks ago and thought this would be the perfect time to bake them. I could enjoy them and I could also share them with Julie, Meg and Robyn so that I wouldn't have to eat them myself.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Last night, while I was watching Law and Order: SVU, I decided to break out my newest Wet 'N Wild nail polish that I got last week in Under Your Spell. I have to say that the first coat kinda freaked me out because it was so thin, but I was able to build up the opacity in 2 coats. I went with 3 coats for the full effect. It's a very dark burgundy red, perfect for fall (even though I'm still wearing flip flops).

I went to visit RJ at the animal hospital after work. The vet did a culture on him and found E.coli in his system, a strain that is known to be resistant to some medications. It's possible that when he went to the vet with a urinary issue in early September, the antibiotics prescribed by that vet didn't do the trick. I thought the sticker on his name plate at the hospital was both funny and embarrassing at the same time. The vet called earlier, "Well, he's a pretty happy cat. Very affectionate as long as you don't touch his rear end."

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

I came home to a very sick cat. Julie and I walked through the door on Sunday and were unpleasantly surprised when we found out that RJ had thrown up several times while I was gone. Vomiting has never been a thing that I worried about in him. (Biting and scratching up the furniture? Ok, maybe...). I noticed that there wasn't much to clean up in the litter box. I also gave him some canned food and he was not interested. He did pee a little before I went to bed so I was hoping things would magically get better when I woke up on Monday.

Nope, they didn't.

I scooped him up first thing Monday morning and took him to the vet and the vet tech said that he was blocked. So RJ's been at the vet since Monday morning. The vet removed the blockage and inserted a catheter and put him on fluids. They ran some tests on him and some of the levels were higher than they should be but with some TLC from the vet staff, the vet seemed to be pleased with his progress. I went to visit him Tuesday and today after work, so it was nice to see for myself what the progress was.

On Tuesday, I brought in a t-shirt with my scent on it in case that would comfort him. He also had a catheter in and a line for fluids and a cone of shame. Today, he only had a line for fluids and he didn't have to wear a cone. He was much more affectionate. That was better than the report that I got yesterday which was "He's been a little angry with us." Apparently his behavior wasn't as bad as some other patients who have to be sedated because they get REALLY angry. Poor guy.